Guzman has 3 hits in start against righty

Just a few days ago, Astros manager Bo Porter said there wasn’t a small enough sample size to break away from a platoon in left field.

He broke away from it at first base on Wednesday, and it worked.

Jesus Guzman, a righthanded hitter, had three hits starting against Nationals righty Jordan Zimmerman on Wednesday in place of usual lefthanded hitter Marc Krauss. Zimmerman is one of the top-20 hardest throwing starting pitchers in the majors this season with an average fastball of 94 mph, among pitchers with a minimum of 100 fastballs thrown.

“Did a good job tonight. Three hits?” Porter said. “And another hard hit ball. Again, when you look at the guy they had throwing tonight, it matches up well with his skill sets. (Guzman’s) a fastball hitter. This guy (Zimmerman) believes in his fastball. I felt like that was a good match up going in and he did a good job.”

Krauss has been the Astros’ worst fastball hitter this year. Guzman has been one of the best against the fastball, along with Dexter Fowler and Jose Altuve.

Krauss is hitting .130 with a pair of homers on the season overall.

“I think right now he’s had some pitches to hit that he hasn’t hit,” Porter said of Krauss. “If you miss your pitch and now you’re constantly trying to deal with hitting the pitcher’s pitch, that makes it more difficult.”

Porter didn’t commit to a plan at first base going forward: “It all depends on, you know, the match-ups, who we’re playing against.”

Porter indicated he’s going to stick with Fowler in the two-hole behind the leadoff man Altuve.

“When we made the move … Dexter was in a funk and for whatever reason,” Porter said. “He got in the two-hole and the quality of the at-bats have looked a whole lot better. He found his groove, so I don’t see any reason to move him.”